A parker at Marsamxetto Road, near the House of Catalunya in Valletta, this afternoon requested and was granted a warrant of prohibitory injunction to stop  Transport Malta from building a shelter for horses in that part of the road.

Father-of-three Paul Grech, 48, said the building of the horse shelter and the consequent removal of parking would deny him his livelihood.

He said he had worked as a parker on the site for 18 years.

This morning, a contractor working for Transport Malta had started building a horse shelter. Transport Malta officials who called him to their offices then 'aggressively' threatened him not to create any obstacles for them, Mr Xuereb said.

He said the building of the horse shelter would deny him his income. Furthermore, plans to transfer him to another site already served by another parker would create further problems.

He said that although the Transport Authority had certain rights on the assignment of parkers, it had no right to take overnight, arbitrary decisions, causing hardship.

Furthermore, no Mepa permit had been issued for the horse shelter.

The court provisionally upheld the application. The case will be heard on Tuesday.

Dr Jose' Herrera and David Camilleri signed the application.